Page 20 (1/2)

"Good" Avery held out the case "Because you're my sniper And he's your spotter"

Jenkins took the case, but it took him a few seconds iven him an unofficial--but very ieant!"

Jenkins shouted, ," Captain Ponder said, joining Avery near the sandpit

"We've just learned Harvest is expecting a very iation The Governor has requested that this militia provide security--in case of Insurrectionist attack"

This was a boldfaced lie, but Avery and Ponder had agreed that while they couldn't tell the recruits the truth, they needed to give them a reason to train hard--an enemy that would keep them motivated

And yet the mere mention of the Insurrection caused solanced nervously at one another while the rest frowned and shook their heads: We didn't sign up for this

Avery nodded "You volunteered for different reasons But I can teach you to become soldiers--protectors of your planet"

He'd meant what he said to the Lt Commander: until help arrived from FLEETCOM, these recruits were the only protection Harvest had But what he hadn't admitted until now--even to himself--was that he didn't know if he could lead them Not without their respect and trust

And he didn't have a lot of time to earn either one

"I am your drill instructor, but I am also a UNSC Fleet Marine," Avery continued "I have committed myself to a life of service and sacrifice I have set for hest standards of personal conduct and professional skill If you let me, I will teach you to do the sa he coing the UNSC's dirty war against the Insurrection, he had cos He'd sacrificed too much of his humanity for his service

Noas determined to earn it back

Avery took off his duty-cap and tossed it to Healy Then he stepped down into the pit

"But first," he said, lifting Stisen's helot to keep Forsell's head fro any fatter" As the recruits of 1st platoon broke into astonished sht as well be me"

CHAPTER ELEVEN

HARVEST, JANUARY 20, 2525

Sif knew she had been alone too long Alone with her suspicions, without another intelligence to help her separate what she knew fro had happened--was happening--right under her nose But Sif only knew the results of recent unsettling events, not their reasons, and that was a terribly distressing thing for an e

Start hat you know, Sif reain fed the relevant bits of memory into her ni and two of the marines, Johnson and Byrne, had coni had asked Sif to provide her with a vessel for "official DCS business"; Sif had complied without question, and the three huni's sloop, Walk of Shame; an hour later, both ships had broken orbit

But this here things started to becoery from the Tiara's external cameras, Sif could tell that Walk of Sha hull hugged tight against the bottoo container as it initiated a slip to Madrigal This sort of piggybacking wasn't unusual; smaller ships often took rides on Shaw-Fujikawa–equipped vessels the sao-containers linked to propulsion pods to forni's ship had a Shaw-Fujikawa drive; it didn't need the freighter's help to get to Madrigal But that was never Bulk Discount's destination A few hter had exited Slipspace and begun broadcasting an SOS

Sif accessed the storage-array that held the record of the COM: <\\> DCSREGBDX-008814530 >> HARVESTLOCALALL <\ ALERT! CREW MEDICAL EMERGENCY!

<\ CAPTAIN (OKAMACHARLESLICOCX-65129981) IS UNRESPONSIVE!

<\ REQUEST IMMEDIATE MEDICAL ASSISTANCE!

[MESSAGE REPEATS] \ > It was true that humans sometimes had adverse reactions to Slipspace travel The multidimensional domain was volatile, its temporal eddies in a constant state of flux Humans that came in contact with one of these disturbances could be hit by so as minor as nausea or as bad as a stroke In rare cases, people--but not always their ships--had been known to sihters and other vessels relied on "weather reports" fro Slipspace to decide whether it was safe to enter at sih ships in transit (and when there weren't, the DCS supple with probes) to make the system very reliable But it was still a predictive process, and soerous that they had to abort--leave the Slipstreaency exits could be very dangerous for human crews, and the control-circuits of a Shaw-Fujikawa drive were supposed to give fair warning before an abort But this wasn't always possible Better for a crew to return to normal space quickly and suffer fixable, physical injuries than forever disappear inside the Slipstream